


Oh, but she burns

by santacarladiet (sopi497), sopi497



Category: Lost Boys (Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, HAROLD THEY'RE LESBIANS, even gayer than the original if that's possible
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:14:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21575110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopi497/pseuds/santacarladiet, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopi497/pseuds/sopi497
Summary: Santa Carla greets them with Californian summer heat, vast sunshine and a load of people who could just as easily as they’re vacationing or actually living here do an act in a circus. Mike quits looking out of the window when she sees a girl just straight-up licking a squirming rat, and ignores her Mother’s shaky assurances that they’ll like it here.
Relationships: David/Dwayne/Marko/Paul (Lost Boys), David/Michael Emerson (Lost Boys), Michael Emerson/Star (Lost Boys)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Welcome to my first fic in this fandom. This is just my take on how the story of the Lost Boys might have developed if they all had been girls.  
> As you may have read in the relationship tag, there will be romantic lesbian relationships up ahead. Almost all of the characters are gender-bent, except for Grandpa, Laddie and some minor characters.  
> Please also note that english is not my first language, so if you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out to me so I can fix it.

Santa Carla greets them with Californian summer heat, vast sunshine and a load of people who could just as easily as they’re vacationing or actually living here do an act in a circus. Mike quits looking out of the window when she sees a girl just straight-up licking a squirming rat, and ignores her Mother’s shaky assurances that they’ll like it here. Mike can admit that just by looks, Santa Carla is more beautiful than Phoenix and she knows the heat here will be more bearable than the dry, completely still desert air that haunts her hometown. 

She only has very dim memories of Santa Carla and her Grandpa. It’s been eight years since her Grandma died and her funeral was the last time she met her grandfather. She remembers a wake in a dark, stuffy house, her mother crying and her father trying to explain the concept of death to her little sister who was only seven at the time. Now, to escape their parent’s failure of a loveless marriage, they’re moving here. To Mike it feels like running, like fleeing from her mother crying in the night when she thinks her girls are asleep, from her father’s indifference.

At the gas station, she chooses to ride the last few miles on her old little bike. She bought it used, with money scraped together and saved up from odd little jobs, birthdays and Christmases and besides her weights, it is her most prized possession. Riding into Grandpa’s yard, she is greeted by wind chimes and wood carvings, a tiny old trailer, an ominously swinging door to an empty shed and her Grandpa’s dead-looking body.

After he gives up his little act (and Sammy is turning desperate eyes to her at that, practically begging her to steal their mom’s car and hightail it back to Phoenix. Mike can relate.) he starts helping them get their stuff inside.

Her Grandpa’s house is subjectively the weirdest place she’s ever been in. It’s dark inside, wooden panels on the walls swallowing a lot of the natural light entering through small and sparse windows. Stuffed animals littler the space, from small creatures like squirrels and birds Mike can’t name to the mountain lion reigning over the living room. It is dated and it looks more like a hunter’s lodge rich people vacate in than a place where people spend a lifetime in. The worst of it has to be the taxidermy laboratory Sammy barges into after their chase. The red light, sharp teeth and antlers everywhere, dead glass beads and marbles instead of eyes and the smell of formaldehyde makes it look like a scene out of a graphic nightmare. This is not a room Mike is likely going to enter on her own again, so her Grandpa’s ban is a little unnecessary.  
\---  
In the evening, after they’ve all unpacked and showered the sweat and grime of a long drive and unpacking after it off, Mom eventually gives in to Sammy’s whining and takes them to the boardwalk. They could have gone on Mike’s bike, but Mom hadn’t wanted them to be completely on their own in a strange city. Santa Carla wasn’t really large enough to truly get lost in, but Lucy wasn’t a stupid woman. She had read the sign proclaiming Santa Carla to be the Murder Capital of the world in her review mirror and she had seen all the missing person reports posted on every available surface. Lucy knew Mike was old enough to take care of herself and her sister for a few hours, but she felt better knowing that she was in a relatively short range for tonight.

Mike herself saw flyers for a concert taking place at the beach tonight and since she’s not very interested in the rides or shops of the boardwalk, she heads there, taking Sam with her.  
She enjoys the performance even though she asks herself if all the grease on the lead singer was really necessary and whether being so close to an open flame didn’t pose a safety risk. Then, a girl catches her eye, while she’s wafting through the crowd and ascending to a higher level of the old stadium. She is beautiful, with curly, long and dark hair, flawless skin and an inviting mouth sitting under a perfect nose and dark eyes. She claps her hands and moves to the music, obviously enjoying the act and when she catches Mike’s eyes, she smiles, but quickly looks away and turns her back, escaping the crowd towards the amusement park.

Afterwards, Mike couldn’t really tell what drove her to follow the other woman. Of course, she was pretty, beautiful even, but Mike had seen some beautiful girls before and never reacted like this, running after them like a creep, dragging her protesting sister with her.  
\---  
Meanwhile, up on the boardwalk, Lucy takes a comfortable stroll. She’s trying to remember her youth here, which stores stayed, what’s new and what hasn’t changed. What’s new is the astonishing number of missing people. She definitely doesn’t remember that. Of course, there had always been accidents, some people drowned and some got lost in the woods surrounding Santa Carla, but not this extreme. It made her weary and worried her on behalf of her girls.

Beside the wall of announcements was a Video store and a sign by the door proclaiming they wanted a help. Beside the emotional drainage that had been her divorce, money was tight after all the cost the process had caused.

Before she could act on it though, she heard cries and quickly found the source. A little boy, whining after he lost his mother. Lucy’s heart immediately melted and she took the kid by the hand, leading him into the bright Video store. In attendance was a brunette woman with glasses about her own age who gave her a friendly smile.

“Hi. I think this little boy lost his mother, I wonder I if you can help us.”

“Well…” but before the woman can finish her sentence, another lady enters, hectic, and goes for the boy.

“Terry! There you are. I was so worried. Don’t run away from me like that….”

She quickly exits, the boy in tow, and leaves Lucy and the woman behind.

“I’m Maxine, by the way.”  
Lucy introduces herself and accepts the lollipop hesitantingly.

Before she can say something else, Maxine’s expression changes, going from open and friendly to a mix of serious and vaguely hostile.

“I told you not to come in here anymore.”

Lucy turns and is faced with a group of young women. They looked to be about Mike’s age.

The first of them, the one Maxine had spoken to, had a platinum blonde, perfectly styled Mohawk, the sides of her head shaved almost to the skin with just the slightest stubble emerging. She was in a black coat with some sort of military medal dangling from it, underneath it another jacket was visible over a black pullover. She had on black leather pants, cowboy boots with spurs on them and a smirk that spoke of no good.

She turns and leaves without a word. After her follows a taller young woman with black hair, a darker complexion and a serious expression. She is wearing a leather jacket with a patch in the shape of a jaguar or a cheetah sown on the sleeve and under it a tan tank top that matches her skin so well it almost looks like she is topless. A heavy necklace made out of leather and wooden beads is around her neck and she is in dark pants and sneakers.

The next is another blonde, but her hair is artfully styled up in a way that reminds Lucy of glam rockers like Guns and Roses or Poison, whose music videos she sometimes caught glimpses of when Sammy watched them. Her outfit consists of a black mesh top with a black bralet under it and a black coat over it, with pants and knee-high black boots. It is decorated with a lot of chains and belts. She also smirks as she walks out, patting the dark one before on the shoulder and forming a circle with the thumb and index finger of her other hand.

The last one is the shortest and slightest of the group. She is also blonde, with a mop of tight curls atop her head and down her back. In Combination with her figure and her pretty face she almost looks like a doll. The image is disrupted by her smirk that’s bordering on a snarl, and her outfit. She’s wearing an obviously hand-made denim jacket with patches upon patches littering the fabric. It’s ornate and kind of ugly, but Lucy can guess the amount of work this girl invested in that jacket makes it a very loved and carefully guarded possession. Under it is a grubby crop top that once upon a time has been white and blue jeans on her legs with shabby leather chaps thrown over them, painted boots on her feet.

She follows at last, and the moment’s tension is over.

“Wild kids.” Maxine comments with a shake of her head.

“We were that age once, too. But they dress better. Bye-Bye.”

Lucy makes to leave, but Maxine asks her about her wishes for video tapes upon which Lucy remembers what she originally wanted to enter the shop for. 

Maxine apparently is desperate for a help, because they quickly make out the date and time of her first shift to be the day after tomorrow.  
\---  
Sammy finally manages to get away from her suddenly love-struck sister and entered the comic store. This is the closest she’ll ever get to heaven while she’s still alive, she thinks.  
There’s rows upon rows of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and all the others she loves. She begins browsing the Batman section, even though she doesn’t have any money on her, always looking out for the number 5. A pricking of her neck tells her she’s being watched, and as she discreetly checks her surroundings, she spies one girl in the opposite row looking at her, another one is leaning against a pillar, openly staring.  
Both of them carry brown boxes with comics in them. A look at the couple Sam believes owns the store tells her that they’re fast asleep, leaving the two girls in attendance of the store. They seem to be a bit older than her, maybe by a year, and they are clothed in army greens and browns, the light-haired one by the pillar even has a Rambo-esque bandana wrapped around her head. They’re closing in on her.  
“Got a problem, guys?” Sam asks into their twin scowls.  
“Just scoping your civilian wardrobe.”  
“Pretty cool, huh?”  
“If you’re a fashion victim.”

Sam looks down at herself , her bright shirt and and striped coat, skinny jeans and high-tops, and then casts a long and very sarcastic look at the other girls attire. They exchange a few more sarcastic jibes while Sam is looking for a discreet way of getting out of there.  
A comic is being pushed into her hand, on it a gory sketch of a man in a coat, the title proclaiming : “Vampires Everywhere!”. 

“I don’t like horror comics.” Sam tries to give it back to bandana girl.  
“You’ll like this one, Ms. Phoenix. It could save your life.”

Before the conversation can go on much longer, a scuffle by the door attracts the girl’s attention. Sam sees a rat-faced man taking off with a few comics clutched in his hands. The Frogs chase after him, giving Sam the opportunity to gently put the comic back on the shelf and slip out of the store unnoticed. The board walk is not very full right now, and it’s easy for her to find her tall sister.  
\---  
Mike follows the girl, but she never catches up to her. It’s only now she notices that the brunet has a young boy with her and it makes her wonder. She is far too young to be the boy’s mother. She looks to be twenty, and the boy must be about ten. Maybe he is her younger brother? 

It doesn’t matter. 

She heads for some girls with bikes and sends the boy off to a dark-haired one. She herself gets on behind a bleach blonde with a Mohawk. The Blonde notices Mike staring openly at them and smirks at her, raising her eyebrows in a silent challenge, and somehow it is just as attractive to Mike as the Brunet’s gentle smile. Before she can say or do anything more, two other blondes have jumped on their bikes and started revving them mercilessly before driving off into the night.

Mike is still staring at them when Sam finds her.  
“Come on, She stiffed ya. “ Sammy laughs in her ear.  
Mike lets herself be tugged to their Mom’s car, her eyes still in the distance.


	2. Chapter 2

A few days later, Mike is on the boardwalk again, this time by herself. She knows that Sammy had been down too, in the afternoon. She’s told Mike about some freaky girls in a comic book store and loudly announced her opinions about the weirdness of that place and Santa Carla in general. It doesn’t stop Mike from heading into town that evening, because in the last few days she’s come to realize that there is absolutely nothing cool to do in Santa Carla besides the boardwalk. 

One single hike with her grandpa had cured her of the notion of wanting to get out into nature, what with the old man telling her about how many people had been lost in the woods through the years and what kinds of animals that could rip them to shreds in seconds lived around here. She didn’t care much for horses either, so learning how to ride one was out of the question. So far, she had spent most of her days training, polishing and fixing her bike and going to the beach with Sammy.

Now, she’s strolling along the boardwalk, just in a grey shirt and jeans. The girl from their first evening hadn’t left her mind and when her eyes fall on a stand selling clothes, she remembers how the biker girls had been dressed, in black, with leather jackets and piercings. It’s a subconscious decision to head over to the stand, then the blond seller talks her into buying a black leather jacket. It fits her well and she has to admit it’s actually keeping her warm. She’s not used to the nights out here being so chilly and wind-swept, and she is not dressed for it.

Next up is a stand proclaiming “Free Piercings!” and she hesitates, touching her earlobe and remembering the way the silver had glinted in the platinum blondes ear, how perfect it had looked against her pale skin. She gets in line behind a panicky girl and her friend desperately trying to reassure her that the piercing won’t hurt. She doesn’t notice the presence besides her until “It’s a rip-off.” is being murmured into her ear.

Mike turns and sees it’s the girl from the first night. She’s already turned her back and is slowly walking away, and Mike quickly catches up to her. Mike notices she is dressed almost the same as she was the first night, in a white cotton top and a floor-length, sequined purple skirt and a mass of bracelets around her wrists.

“If you want your ear pierced, I can do it.”  
“What’s your name?”  
“Star.” “Your folks too, huh?”  
“What do you mean?”   
“Hippies. I came this close to being called Moon Beam or Moon Child. But Star is very nice.”

Star laughs a little and Mike adds: “ My name’s Michelle, but please call me Mike.”  
“Michelle is very nice. And Mike too.” Star says, smiling and gathering her hair over her shoulder.

Mike once more marvels at how beautiful she is, almost unreal.

“Would you like to get something to eat with me?” she chances, and this time, Star openly smiles and agrees, following Mike to her bike. Before they can get on though, there’s the roar of other, much more significant motors around them and the blonde Mohawk girl comes to a stand next to them. Her companions are surrounding them from all sides, and Mike notices that all of them are very good-looking.  
Apparently being an undercover supermodel is a requirement for joining a biker gang in Santa Carla.

“Where are you going, Star?” the leader asks.  
“I’m just going for a ride. This is Michelle.” Star answers and starts to climb up on Mike’s bike.  
“Star.”  
This time, her voice is sharp in a command that won’t allow any bartering, and Star lowers her eyes as she goes over to the blonde’s large bike.

She climbs on, clutching at the taller girl’s shoulder to do so, all while the blond is still looking at Mike.

“Do you know where the outlook is, over Hudson's Bluff?” It’s a challenge if Mike’s ever heard one. Her voice in unexpectedly soft and sort of jarring in comparison to her whole appearance.

“I can’t beat your bike.” She answers, even though everything in her yearns to rub the blonde’s smug face on her front tire, but she knows that would end in disaster.  
“You don’t have to beat me, Michelle. You just have to keep up.”

She starts up her bike and takes off without further comment, but Star is looking back at her, and there is something unreadable in her eyes, something that Mike wants to, and needs to explore. It’s a quick decision to hop onto her bike and follow the group down the stairs and onto sand painted silver by the moonlight. She follows their tail lights and their excited whoops until Santa Carla disappears behind dense trees and shrubs of the woods surrounding the coastal town. 

Mike has to strain to keep up, riding at a breakneck speed over terrain she doesn’t know. Root and fallen trees and bushes make her almost fall once or twice, then they are out of the woods and back on even ground. She pushes her bike more, coming head to head with the blonde and Star, then even further. Her excitement at that only lasts briefly however, then she recognizes the flash of the lighthouse through the thick fog and a warning shrills in her head. Instinctively, she yanks her bike to the side and breaks harshly, just a few feet before the ground abruptly ends in a steep cliff.

The blonde gently rolls to a stop next to her, as do the others, who had the sense to stop a few meters behind.  
Mike is overcome with anger and adrenaline so it’s easy to jump off the ground and land a punch in the leaders face before she is being held back by the smallest and the brunette of the group.

“What are you doing, huh?!”  
The blonde turns back to her. Mike’s punch hadn’t fazed her at all, apparently, a smug grin still firmly in place. Mike’s anger overrides the subtle, odd feeling she has about that, and she challenges:  
“Just you, come on. Just you.”   
“How far are you willing to go, Michelle?” 

And that’s some kind of signal apparently, because the ones holding her step back and let go of her. Yet, no attack comes from the leader.

“Relax, Michelle. It was just a little test. To see if you fit in with us, so to speak.”  
“And did I pass?” Mike asks, sarcasm thick in her voice.  
“I think it’ll do for now. I’m Dawn.” And she reaches out a hand in a black leather glove. Mike hesitates shortly, but in the end she accepts the handshake.

“These are my girls, Diane on your left, Marie on your right, and of course Pauline back there. You already know Star.”   
The girls greet her with nods.

“What happens now?” Mike asks. She is getting more confused by the minute.

“Well, we are going to party and you’re welcome to join us, Michelle.” With that, Dawn turns and heads to her bike, the others following. Mike hesitates for a second, then she picks up her bike and rides after the others.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just so you know, this is my first work in this fandom, also english is not my first language, so sorry in Advance for grammar and spelling mistakes.
> 
> From this Point on, the story will deviate from the Canon, so be aware. 
> 
> I hope you all have fun with this chapter!

The ride to wherever this party is supposed to happen is short. They have to leave their bikes on a cliff and head down wet, wooden stairs that lead to an abandoned beach littered with scrap metal and trash. They head right into the mouth of a pitch black cave, ignoring the ‘Danger! Keep out!’ signs. 

The mouth of the cave opens to a high ceiling. The brunet, Diane, is walking around lighting fires in old oil drums, and soon the cave is lit by the orange shine of flames, interspersing oddly with the pale moonlight shining in through large cracks in the ceiling.

It’s an odd place. The centerpiece is obviously a broken fountain surrounded by all sorts of old furniture, massive cabinets and couches and heavy rugs. Once upon a time, they must have been well-made and very beautiful, but now they are littered with cigarette butts and other junk.  
The ocean is loud in here. The roars of the waves outside drown out the excited woops of the girls as they go around the cave busying themselves while Dawn tells Mike something about the old hotel that apparently had been in this place 80 years ago. Mike spares a brief thought to how she could possibly know that.

“So, you live here?” Mike asks a bit dumbly.  
“At least for the summer. We came here some time ago, but I think we overstayed our welcome.” A collective, nasty cackle rises from the other girls, but before Mike can wonder the meaning of that, a lit joint is pressed into her fingers. She takes a drag and has to cough as the sticky smoke fills her mouth, throat and lungs. This is different from what she used in Phoenix the few times she’s actually gotten to try it.

“Strong stuff, huh? Pauline always gets the best.” Dawn grins, too sharp, and takes the joint back, taking a drag of her own before handing it back to the blonde.

Mike notes that Star has kept herself in the shadows of the cave, only now emerging with a colorful shawl wrapped tightly around her. Mike can understand that. It’s cold and damp in the cave, yet at the same time musty from the dust and the smoke of the fires, the cigarettes and joints. Mike isn’t really sure what’s supposed to happen now, but the girls fill the brief silence with chatter, asking Mike about herself. She answers dutifully until the noise at the entrance of the cave announces the smallest of the group has returned. 

They settle down to eat, and Dawn eyes her, sharply, almost hungrily as she asked how those maggots are. As soon as she does so there’s something squirming, wriggling, alive in Mike’s mouth and she throws it away and spits it out, only to see plan whit rice spilling out of the white carton on the ground. She is part amazed and part horrified. What the hell happened?

Before she can ponder on it, an ornately decorated bottle is being passed to her with the urge to drink. She does, and her mouth explodes with the sweet tanginess of wine that’s been standing open for too long. It is heavy and spicy and she can feel it going to her head as soon as she swallows, but she continues to drink as the other girls cheer her on and dance around.   
Mike fails to notice Star’s large, fearful eyes watching them from her separate alcove.  
-  
She finally regains some kind of sense when they are back out in the open night air, standing on the beach barefoot. It’s still warm out and the ocean greets them with thunderous roars.   
The other girls around her start taking off their jackets, as well as Dawn in front of her.

“What’s going on?”  
“We’re going to have a little bath, Michelle. You’re welcome to join us.”

The first girl, Diane, is completely undressed now, and gorgeous, and walks up the wooden stairs they came down a few hours ago. About halfway up she stops and climbs over the railing on the side out to the rough rock. She stands for a second, waves down to Mike and Dawn, and jumps from the cliff. The smile on Mike’s face freezes. It had to be at least 15 feet down into the choppy water and who knew if any rocks were hidden under the surface of the ocean?

“Don’t be scared, Michelle!” the small blonde, Marie, yells down from her perch on the rocks before throwing herself down with a shout. Pauline quickly followed, plummeting down to the water. By now, Dawn is naked as well, and she’s perfect, pale skin flawless and silver in the moonlight.

“Come on, Michelle. Be one of us.” Then Dawn heads up the stairs, and Mike quickly undresses. She sees Dawn once more, standing regally on the cliff before she steps into the air and falls out of sight. Mike hurries out of her clothes, but hesitates before walking up the stairs. It feels odd, standing alone on the beach, naked and in the dark and she shakes herself out of her fear. If nothing happened to them, nothing will happen to her. 

She walks up on climbs out. The wind pulls at her up here and the ocean is black as ink and dangerous, threatening, yet there’s a mysterious pull to it. Mike closes her eyes, breathes sharply, once, twice, and jumps.  
The water wraps her in an icy embrace and it shocks the breath out of her lungs for a few seconds. Then she starts to move, kicks and punches until she finds the surface again, breaking through and sucking in the air. Then she is surrounded by the girls, all applauding her for jumping. They frolic in the water for a while, heading to the shallower parts where the water is warmer and they can stand. Diane is swimming lazy circles while Marie and Pauline start a heated water fight. Mike is content to watch on, see the water roll of their beautiful bodies. Lazy arousal shivers through her, and only punctually turns into sharp tugs when the blondes kiss, with Diane joining them eventually. Dawn comes up next to her and throws an arm over her shoulders.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it?” she grins and gestures at the others.  
“Yeah.” Mike murmurs, her mouth incredibly dry.  
“You’re ice cold. Let’s get out.”

Mike doesn’t even protest, just follows Dawn like the others do. Back in the cave, she is handed a grubby towel and she wipes herself down and pulls her clothes back on. Then the bottle is being handed to her again, and the dance begins anew, until she is so exhausted she can barely keep herself up.

She must have been drunker than she thought, because when she wakes up after a dead sleep she is in her bedroom, in her dirty, sweaty clothes from last night. She can’t recall how she got home, everything that’s happened after they went swimming is in vague and confusing pieces.


	4. Chapter 4

The night after that was exhausting for the vampires. Hypnotizing Michelle would have been easy, because they’d spend the night with her and she had gotten used to Dawn’s presence. For her alone, Dawn wouldn’t have needed any help, but with her sister, whom they only saw very briefly, it took all of their combined effort to get into her head and convince her of their presence at the house.  
After that, they went for a quick hunt, dragging a young, foolish couple they had found in a secluded corner off the main beach back to the hotel, draining them and quickly disposing of the bodies, ripping them apart and throwing them into the black ocean.

“So, what happens now?” Marie asks into the quiet cave.  
“We wait. She will come to us.”  
Dawn had sent Star out with Laddie with the instruction not to come back before the boardwalk closed. She didn’t want the child here for this. She hadn’t wanted the child at all. She would have happily ignored Star’s begging to take care of the child, but Max had gotten wind of it, and as caught up in the delusions of grandeur as she was, had ordered Dawn to accept the child into their lair. She had not been happy about that. She hates children and she’s always pitied child vampires. Eventually, all of them turned to psychopaths, their minds unable to withstand the strain of growing older and not growing older at the same time. 

If Max would go through with her plans of turning the woman, Lucy, and the other girl, Sammy, it would mean five new vampires for Santa Carla. Dawn had an inkling that they bodies the four of them had amassed over the past few years would easily double in count, and that was without all the other creatures Santa Carla was crawling with. Dawn sensed a move would soon be in order, but she had decided to sit back and wait for this stupid, stupid idea of Max’s to come back to her and bite her in the ass. Then she and her sisters would pack it up and move somewhere else. 

They had circled the woman on the boardwalk just this evening, checking out Maxine’s newest obsession. There had been others like her, before, but most hadn’t been interested in a relationship with a woman or had pulled away from Maxine before anything serious could happen. Dawn doubted that this new lady would be different. She was far too gentle-looking for a vampire, and Dawn doubted she had the stomach to kill even if her nature demanded it.

For now, though, they waited for Mike. Seducing her wouldn’t be very easy, because she might not be overly smart, but she had an impeccable moral compass. Dawn had prepared the bottle beforehand. She hoped that they didn’t need to use it, that the turning would overwhelm Michelle and she’d give in to the urges and kill her sister. It would be two problems off Dawn’s back, with the sister removed and the mother grieving and horrified, Michelle would turn to her and run into their welcoming arms. Dawn expected Mike to run in here, blood-spattered, desperate, looking for answers. 

In case something went wrong, and Mike didn’t kill her sister, Dawn expected Mike would come here anyway, still searching for answers as to what was happening. Hence Dawn had filled the bottle back up, intending to use it to make Mike more acceptable of her bidding.  
They’d kept themselves in the shadows of the cave, easily disguised in the black alcoves off the main room. They didn’t have to wait very long, maybe an hour before Diane perked up and murmured: “She’s here.”

Silence, disrupted by the crashing waves, then the scuffle of footsteps down the dirt track at the mouth of the cave.  
“Star? Star!” Of course she would call after Star first. Star wouldn’t be able to give her answers. She was quickly turning into a pain in Dawn’s neck, but Dawn only had herself to blame for that one. She had wanted Star, and Dawn always got what she wanted in the end. It wouldn’t be long until Star made her first kill. Dawn looked forward to it, knowing that the gentle girl would be breathtaking, as they all were, when she hunted.

Dawn stepped out of the shadows. “She’s not here, Michelle.”  
“Dawn. What’s happening with me? Where is Star, what did you do to her?”  
“Star is alright, she’s on the boardwalk. As for what’s happening, why don’t you sit down and have a drink and we’ll explain it all.” 

She made a subtle gesture and the other girls stepped out of the shadows, closing in on them in a circle until Michelle had stepped back and taken a seat on the edge of the fountain. Pauline had kept the bottle with her, now she brought it forward and uncorked it,  
“Drink. You’ll feel better.” The tall blonde urged with a bit of their supernaturally suggestive powers strewn in and pushed the bottle into Mike’s unresisting hands. 

The brunet made the move to do it, but in the last moment she hesitated, pulling the bottle back again and setting it down on the fountain next to her.  
“What’s happening to me, Dawn? Why do I feel like this? I almost attacked my sister tonight!””  
“You’re becoming one of us, Michelle, you’re changing, becoming more powerful. Can’t you feel it?”  
Suddenly, she is right in front of Mike, holding her jaw in a tight grip, the other hand is holding the bottle to her lips, forcibly pouring the fluid into her mouth. Mike tries pushing her back, but Dawn is like a stone wall against her, cold and unmoving.  
“Drink!”  
And Mike swallows, even though she knows she shouldn’t.  
Dawn grins. “Good girl. Have another.” And the bottle is back again, and Mike drinks more, this time unresisting, just lets it pour down her throat into her stomach, filling her, poisoning her.  
After that the world’s edges become blurry. Dawn steps back, manic grin firmly in place.  
“Let’s take care of her, girls.”   
Marie takes her place in front of Mike and gently pulls her up from the fountain. The next thing Mike feels are the girl’s cold lips on her own, and after a second her brain catches up, and she latches on to the small blonde, kissing back. Eventually, Marie pulls back, and takes one of Mike’s hands in both of hers.  
“Don’t be scared, Michelle.” She murmurs.

“Come with us, Michelle.” Dawn says. She is in the far back of the cave, the other two tall girls by her sides, and Marie pulls her over there. Together they enter a dark tunnel Mike hadn’t noticed before. Marie is still holding onto her hand, leading her through the dark that is only gradually luminated by the torch Diane carries. It’s a strange little procession through the dark, eerie silence in a tunnel that leads them deep into the gut of the remains of a once magnificent building. It’s a little strange that Mike can barely see and stumbles often over the rocky and uneven ground while the other girls step securely, as if they can see in the dark.  
Eventually the tunnel opens to a low-ceiling room that might have been a guest room once upon a time.

“Here’s where we found most of the furniture that’s in the living room.”  
The room is indeed quite empty apart from a wide bed, and an outdated loveseat pushed into the very corner. Dawn guides her over to the love seat while the other girls get busy lighting up a rusty chandelier. In combination with the light of the torch Diane has slid into a fixture on the wall across from the bed, it’s light enough for Michael to make out all of their features quite clearly, even as Dawn pushes her down on the loveseat and sits in her lap. 

She kisses Mike, hard, brutal, dominating, as Mike had known she would. In the room, she can hear the rustling of clothes and sheets, she feels the movement of Dawn taking her coat and jacket off, her own jacket being pulled off by insistent, impatient hands, but most of all she feels the weight of the other woman on her; her roaming hands on her body, on her ribs and her breasts as they start to peak; her tongue in Mike’s mouth, wild and powerful and perfect.

While Mike is still distracted by the feel of Dawn’s flesh under her fingertips, Dawn wrenches away from her and in a quick move, arranges them so that Mike is in her lap, but facing away from her and toward the bed.  
“Look at them. Aren’t they perfect? Don’t you wanna be one of us, Michelle?”  
Mike looks at the girls writhing on the bed, Marie riding Diane’s face, Pauline buried in between Diane’ long legs.  
Mike nods, her mouth dry. “Yes, yeah, I wanna be.”  
Dawn pushes her to stand and heads over to the bed.  
“Then join us.”  
And so Michelle does.  
The next hour, or hours, or days, Mike can’t tell, are spent on the bed, writhing and panting as the girls bring the sweetest of deaths to her again and again until she can’t bear it anymore. All she remembers are teeth against her skin, nails on her clit and fingers and tongues inside her, torturing her and fulfilling her.  
-  
It has to be hours later when she wakes up, and she feels the bright day like a weight upon her, even though no natural light has found its way to the room. It’s stuffy, hot and dark in here, the candles and torch almost completely burned out. Mike sits up. The girls around her are fast asleep, their limbs thrown carelessly across the bed, legs and arms intertwined in a gentle embrace. Mike eyes the one closest to her, Marie, and notices for the first time how pale she is, how skinny, like she hasn’t had a decent meal in weeks, if not months.

And how young she looks.

She can’t be more than seventeen, at the most. Mike wonders belatedly what happened to her, to all of them, to be here, in an abandoned ruin in a coastal town that is painfully uninteresting for 6 months a year. The life rushes to Santa Carla when Spring Break begins, like blood to the veins from a reanimated heart, and as quickly as it comes, it fades when fall really begins.

Mike ponders a bit on that as she gets up and finds her clothes. She doesn’t really want to move, the lazy aftermath of the night still weighing down her limbs, but she wants to go home. She stinks, she needs a shower and some time to herself.  
The ride home is long, made longer by the bright sun beating down on her. She wishes she’d thought to bring her sunglasses.

Mike finally arrives home, only to run into her mother where she’s is sitting on the porch.  
“Hey, can we talk?”  
“Sure, Mom.”  
“Sit down with me.”  
Mike sits on a chair across from her. Her mother eyes her for a minute.  
“Look, Mike, I wanted to talk to you about Maxine. You know I went to dinner with her last night, or tried to before your sister….well. It’s just, I really like her and I think I might see her more often.”  
“You’re a lesbian, Mom?”  
“Bisexual. I fooled around with a girl when I was in college, but it was in the sixties. It was forbidden, Michelle, even more than it is now. The I met your father and you came along soon, and now we’re here.”  
“Did you ever regret meeting Dad?”  
“No. I know it’s been tough, but I wouldn’t have you or Sammy without him.”  
“I think I’m like you, Mom.”  
“Are you seeing someone? Is that why you’ve been away so often lately?”  
“Kind of.” Mike is nervous, and she can’t really look her mother in the eye.  
“It’s alright, Michelle. Just be careful, there are a lot of people who don’t understand people like us, you need to know that.”  
“I’ll be fine, mom.”   
Then she stands up and goes to the long-awaited shower.


	5. Chapter 5

Mike makes it another two days before she can’t bear it anymore. The thirst, this craving inside for something she doesn’t dare to name tortures her along with the memories of the feverish night in the cave. She is in turns locking herself in her room or terrorizing Sammy. Nanook has become increasingly worked up around her as well, not allowing her to touch him (not that she wanted to) and even growling whenever she enters a room he’s in. It seems Sammy has gotten an inkling of what’s going on with her. She has been avoiding her and hanging out more with those weirdoes from the comic book store. They are in the house tonight, Edwina and Ellen are their names.

She heads out into town on the night her mom has invited Maxine over, the weight of her mother’s disappointed stare heavy on her back.   
She runs into Maxine on her way out, but doesn’t really pay attention to what the woman says to her, eager to leave.  
She finds the girls where she expects them, hanging over the railing on the boardwalk, watching the rides and the people and smoking. She rips Marie back from the rails and gets up in Dawn’s face.

“What is happening to me? What did you do to Star? Tell me right now!”  
Dawn blow out smoke and grins. “Take it easy, Michelle. Star is perfectly fine, she is in the cave. If you want to find out what’s happening to you, come with us right now.”

Dawn had first considered just letting Star see Michelle, but quickly abandoned the idea. Her hope was that one of the half-vampire would kill the other in her thirst, but Dawn couldn’t count on that, and it might backfire on her. So she had left Star tonight, knowing that without blood to supply her powers, she couldn’t easily make the long flight to Santa Carla.

They rode up to the sandy hill that separated them from their targets and they climbed up into the tall tree. The surf nazis were drunkenly dancing around a bonfire, unaware of the danger they were in. Perfect.

“Come on, Michelle. You don’t wanna miss this.”  
The brunet still hesitated, looking as if she’d rather be running away, hightailing it back to the shack on the hill that housed the old weirdo Emerson.

Finally though, she made her way onto the hill, climbing into the tree and overlooking the party happening on the beach.  
“Initiation’s over, Michelle. Time to join the club.”

Dawn’s pale face lifts out of the shadows, but it isn’t her. A creature has taken over her fine features and distorted them, strange bony ridges on her forehead and along her cheekbones, white, long fangs in her jaws and gold and red pupils in her eyes, wide and unblinking, beautiful and terrible, the fixed stare of a predator upon Mike.

The other girls look just like her, demonic, laughing with distorted voices. Mike is still reeling when a second later, the tree is empty, and the first screams sound from the beach.

Mike knows she should leave, but she is frozen on the spot, watches the carnage, hears bones break and sees blood spatter. It’s horrifying and breathtaking and her jaw aches where fangs try to break through her gums and she knows her eyes have changed as well.  
She hears their demonic voices calling her name.

“Michelle, we have something for you. Come here.”  
And Mike foolishly follows the call. She faintly wonders how much of Dawn’s blood is mingling with hers, how much of it is in her heart right now.

Pauling and Diane have a man on his knees between them, easily holding his arms and keeping his legs still with their own. Marie is behind him, one hand clenched in his hair and sharply pulling his head back, the other on his throat.

Mike can see the tears rolling down his face as begs and pleads them for his life.   
Dawn takes her by the wrist and leads her. She can smell the sour stench of urine as the man loses his bladder in his fear.

“It’s always kind of sad to see a grown man piss himself, don’t you think?” Diane says, but she doesn’t let go.  
“I think it’s hilarious.” Marie answers with a nasty grin. Her fingernails clench around his jaw hard and she pulls his head back further until the man groans from the pain in his neck.

Dawn lets go of her and steps over to the man.

“He’s for you, Michelle. You know what to do.” Mike hesitates, but the smell of blood around them is making her weak. Dawn sighs impatiently and uses one of her own sharp nails to lightly nick the big vein in the man’s neck. Blood wells up, and Mike is gone.

The next she knows, she is kneeling before the man, sucking on his throat. When no more blood flows out of the tiny wound, Mike doesn’t hesitate anymore. Her fangs unsheathe and she buries them in the man, ignoring his pained screams, the way he trashes against her weakly. She’s ripping the skin to shreds in her eagerness to get more of the red gold flowing into her, taking his life and giving it to her. His heartbeat grows weaker as she grows stronger and when it stutters and dies, she lets go of him. 

“Well done, Michelle.” Dawn compliments as the others carry the body to the brightly burning fire and throw it in. The stench of burning flesh fills the air, but it doesn’t make Mike gag. She has the feeling that nothing will, anymore.

“You’re truly one of us now.”  
Mike passes out after that.  
-  
The next time she wakes, she’s in the cave. It’s still dark, or dark again and Dawn is leaning over her.  
“Look who’s finally awake. Welcome to the land of the not-living, Michelle.”  
“What happened?”  
“Well, you fed for the first time and passed out. It’s not unusual, happens to almost everyone.”  
“I need to go home.”  
“This is your home now, Michelle. Forget about your family. We are your family now. And I think it’s time for Star to finally join us as well. We’re going out!”

Laughter sounds from various corners of the cave as the other women appear out of the shadows. Mike glances over to Star in her alcove, a light glimpse in the dark, and catches her wide, terrified eyes.

“She’s not ready, Dawn.” Mike pleads.  
“She has to be ready, because I’m done waiting. Either she hunts tonight, or she leaves us.”  
Mike doesn’t have to guess to know what ‘leave’ really means.

They head out, Mike as the last of their group. As they ride, she keeps Star’s white top in her line of sight. She can almost feel the growing uneasiness and tension in Star, can smell the adrenaline cursing through her.

On the boardwalk, it’s Marie’s job to seduce their prey. She’s small, and innocent-looking, and she can barely keep a grin off her face as three bumbling idiots follow her into the shadows under the boardwalk. Their hiding place is close to the roller coaster so the inevitable screams won’t attract any unwanted attention.

She gives a mental heads up to her sisters when they are still a few feet away. As they start emerging from the shadows one by one, Marie feels that the guys are growing slightly unsettled, finding themselves not with one small girl alone in the dark, but with three others.   
There’s a primal undercurrent to the hunt that Marie always enjoyed. Humans can sense the proximity of a predator, but they are blinded by their pretty faces and bodies, as easy to pick as ripe apples from a crooked tree.

It’s over quickly, and only one of them is standing alive, kept upright by her hand as she shattered his spine and ripped a large wound in his torso mere moments before. He’s crying, but he isn’t begging. He knows there’s no point.

Star steps forward, but she hesitates, reluctance in every fiber of her being. Marie can’t remember if she resisted that much. It was so long ago, her memories are fading more and more with each passing year.

Dawn is taunting and verbally pushing the brunet, but it is surprisingly Mike who growls impatiently, grabs Star by the back of the head and pushes her face into the man’s chest wound. Star drinks, and her life ends and begins anew in a dark shadow smelling of the sea and rotting wood.

After it’s done, they feel triumphant and steal alcohol from a nearby store (less steal and more threaten the shopkeep into letting them go without paying). Back in the cave they drink and dance and party, celebrating the birth of two new sisters.

Marie catches Mike and Star whispering to each other.  
(“I’m sorry, Star, I’m so sorry, but she would have killed you” “I know that. But I didn’t want it. I never did.”)

She asks herself if that was going to be a problem in the future, and if Star hadn’t maybe been a mistake, as perfect as she was for them, but she was quickly distracted by Diane dragging her onto a couch to make out.


End file.
